The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-09-08

A little more than.two decades have
past since that dark day, but what
q change In every state in this
fair land there are now colleges and
seminaries with such thorough fac
Hties and such high grades of
scholarship as to cause all to won
der that SO much could be accom-
plished in so short a time. Won
der that what seems SO like the
work Of magic. should be blessed
realty. Already they are such as
TO give bountiful food for full
literature, and they are rapidly
growing, the standard of scholar
ship is raised and the curriculum
increased every year.
Side by side with the institution
of learning, religious societies and
organizations for humane and be-
neyolent purposes are springing up
all over the land.
How about the climase2 Could
any country boast genial one?
When poets and painters rayed over
the beautiful blue of the Italian
skies and sang of the balmy air and
gentle zephyrs of Greece, our own
south was unknown; and when the
oranges and citron from these were
praised the pomegranates and ba-
nanas of Florida had never been
tried. When we see and hear and
tell Of the wealth and delight of this
climate we can almost pardon our
fathers that they lived in luxurious
idleness for the sole purpose of en-
joying it.
While the north was rejoicing in
| Whittier, Hawthorne and Bryant,
the south was making no preten-
/: sions to literature; yet she had new
er lacked for one to defend her
cause when the occasion demanded.
Patrick Henry flashed words of
burning patriotism to his wonder
ing listeners that would have done
credit to Cicero. Thomas Jefferson
would rather have written the ''Dec
laration of Independence" than to
have been the author of the rich
est gem of literature of his time.
Clay could prove himself parlia
mentary leader like Fox. Preston
of South Carolina could charm like
Everett. But the motive that
moved them to action was some
thing simply stronger than literary
ambition: it was that sort of stimu-
JUS that now and then made Napo-
lean an oratorin the presence of his
army.
If it be true that those men who
best perform great actions are best
able to think sublime thoughts, is
it not indeed true that the south
has the true elements Of literature,
for are not the deeds of Washington,
Lee, jackson, j. E. b. Stewart and
Of many others, both men and wo-
men, recognized alike by friend
| and foe as great?
| Yes, the spirit of literature finds
its true clements in the south. and
1t early began now and thea to
show itself manifested in such
works as Beverly fuckers "The
Partisan Leader" and George Bal
combs works which excited phe-
; nomensl interest at the time OF
: 4 their first appearance. The latter
RI Of these the publisher to whom ii
vas first offered declared to b.
. above the head OF the ordinary
; novel reading public. we also had
! some early verse writers like Phillip
Pendleton Cook sad Henry Tlmrod
, After the war letters began to be
followed as a profession. 1T seemed
rs if literature had been evoluteG
: by that one agonizing struggle from
the small beginnings Of ala embryo
} 10 a complete and almost fully de.
? veloped form; and all at once abup-
dant material, rich and varied, pos
= sessing literary value and interes,
] sprang up. John Esten Cook wrote
! INCREASINGLY for bread, not for fame
: and now since the tireless hand
! having passed into the shadowy I'm
known, no longer need Labor
e for bread, fame too has come
md John Esten Cook deaC
{ wears the laurel for which he die
] not labor but which he justly earn
a ed.
t For others too the myrtle puts
s forth it's rarest blooms and holds
its richest drops of dew, the tire
poets Sidney Lanier, Paul Hamil
f ton Hayne and Father Ryan. Tn
}, irst, though dead, lives in the at
1 iections OF the people Of the south
: lives as the embodiment of grand
D noble thoughts, lives as an exam
d pie of what soul can accomplish
D while united to body that is rack
ed by pain of q hereditary disease
- that kept it suspended for years be
tween lite and death. His biogra-
] pher says of him, what he left be.
mind him WAS written with his lif
e blood. High above all evils of tn
world he lived in realms Of idea
c serenity as if it was the business o
his life to conquer difficulties
G Though OH the 7th of July, 1886
e the news, Paul Hamilton Hayne i
= dead, was flashed along the tele
F. graph wires, yet he lives to dsy
/ lives as an example of how on
t reared in afiluence surrounded b,
e such luxuries az dwarf and weaker
the mental powers can hold his sou
q imperious to its influences ant
= when reverses in fortune come Cal
? rise superior to it's ordinary effects
e hold himself above want and by hi
S own powers sustain himself in tn
4 elements in which his soul delights
E After glance into his life we ex
r pect to hear him give voice to til
I Midnight Thunder" and see hin
e paint the "Windless Rain," show.
ing how sit drops ON the mist,
D pane" Yes we expect to see him
'Quaff the sunshine streaming from above
e Like mellow wine of antique vintages."
i The grateful south will foreve
f bless the name of Father sRyap, tn
t poet priest, who himself declares
@ his feet were less familiar with tn
d steps of Parnassus than with tn
e humble steps leading up to the al
h tar. and its mysteries. And a.
IL h. L,